2012 when he was GC of Medtronic) joined ADM
as General Counsel in 2013, he was frustrated
that the company couldn’t easily locate basic
information about the number and type of legal
matters facing ADM, how many law firms it was
using or how much it was spending on particular matters or in aggregate.

Findlay knew that, to reduce total legal spend
while providing better service to clients,
the department needed better information on where risks lay and how ADM spent
money managing those risks. Good data and
technology would be critical to making such
basic decisions about hiring outside counsel,
driving cost savings through enforcement of
billing guidelines, developing alternative fee
arrangements and evaluating firms through
reporting and dashboard metrics.

“The legal department wants to be integral tothe strategic changes we’re making here atADM,” said Findlay. “We need to contribute tooperational efficiency through alternative, value-based fee arrangements and lower rates; weneed to be able to select and evaluate the rightlaw firms to assist our businesses in creatingand preserving value; and more generally weneed to partner with ADM’s commercial andsupport functions (finance, HR and IT) to makeall of their low-value administrative tasks moreefficient.”One of Findlay’s first moves was to recruit fomerAon colleague David Cambria to join ADM asGlobal Director of Operations – Law, Compli-ance and Government Relations. Cambriahelped to identify opportunities for improve-ment and cost savings through technology-enabled solutions, enhanced internal processesand better management of external firms.Cambria worked closely with ADM’s global legalteam to understand the company’s strengthsand weaknesses.

“It’s about bringing business discipline to legal
problems to advance the goals of the business,”
said Cambria. “An in-house legal department must operate like a business and spend
shareholders’ money wisely.”

As with any operational transformation, it
is the partners you choose that help drive
its success. ADM undertook an extensive
vendor selection process, visiting each solution
provider for a day. They asked not only about
system features and functionality but about
each company’s vision for the future, product
roadmap and the evolution of legal service
delivery.